Honestly, I loved the Duty. It was one of the first duties that you actually become aware of how powerful you are as a main character - healing out of combat, no need to avoid enemies, able to fight multiple enemies at a time. And at the very end of it, you don't need to kill them, only subduing them. That's much harder to do than outright killing someone.

In this duty, you have to avoid meeting enemies because it's a deadly encounter, and if you fight them, it's a fight to the death. It puts into perspective exactly how terrifying it is to get into combat it is as a regular soldier, how each wound becomes a permanent thing that doesn't just go away without treatment, and how the Final Days will seem even more daunting in perspective. Even worse for Garleans in particular - who lost their magitek, and thus their ability to fight back in a frozen wasteland.

I'm glad they kept the Normal mode duty the same difficulty. It's one of those rare duties that really get you thinking after you can look past the struggle and really hits you once you look back and in the whole journey of "Endwalker" theme. Plus, there's no problem to failure since we can always restart. I'm glad they also offered alternatives for easy and very easy mode for people still struggling though.